This, of course, is what got him into trouble with the religious leaders of his day – in fact, it got him killed.

Jesus revealed God in a way that had not been seen or imagined before – and encouraged those who dared to follow him to live like-minded. He tilted his disciples toward a direction of kindness rather than hostility; toward justice for the marginalized rather than a prejudice for the powerful; toward gracious truth rather than misinformation or ignorance; toward contagious generosity rather than close-minded fear; toward unbridled hope rather a stifling cynicism; toward self-giving rather than self-protection.

Jesus opened up all kinds of possibilities and a fresh, new way of looking at God.

And it got him killed.

Jesus threatened the exclusivity and religious hierarchy of first century Judaism :: Jews were in, Gentiles were out. End of story.

The Jews were God’s chosen people, and they had rules to follow. If you followed the rules – if you sacrificed correctly and prayed enough and celebrated the festivals and kept yourself clean – you had a chance to receive God’s favor. The tribes and institutions were solidly in place to keep things running smoothly.

But then Jesus came, bringing the fresh word of God’s love, mercy and grace to not just some – but all. The God-man made God’s divine favor accessible to everyone.

He threatened the status quo and it got him killed.

Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs.

Ask the wrong questions or take the wrong position – challenge the status quo – and you just may find yourself banned, shunned, burned at the stake or crucified. Tribes and institutions veer toward self-preservation. That’s their trajectory. Whenever anything (or anyone) threatens the status quo, the very structure and existence of institutions are at risk.

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When you bring the fresh word, you open yourself up to:

misinterpretation and confusion and anger and ignorance and fear and jealousy and opinions and evaluation and critique and agendas and baggage and convictions and projections and

the possibility of

truth and light and hope and repentance and desire and compassion and longing and revolution and confession and inspiration and comfort and solidarity and salvation and resurrection

But you don’t get to choose. If you want to open yourself up to even one of these possibilities, you must be willing to surrender the outcome – and risk opening yourself up to all the others.

So the question is, how badly do you want it?

Are you willing to dive into the wonder and joy of exploration, hoping to be surprised with what God is up to? Are you willing to risk being misunderstood, misinterpreted and misquoted in hopes of inspiring and engaging others with a fresh and hopeful word?

Are you willing to challenge the status quo with the possibility that perhaps the good news is even better than we thought? I am. And if they call me a heretic… Well, I’ve been called worse.

What about you? What do you think?

—Michael Kimpan is the author of the WayWard follower blog, a site designed to inspire thoughtful conversation and movement among followers of Jesus Christ. Michael worships and serves on staff as the Communications Director at Richwoods Christian Church in Peoria, IL.

Yes, it got Him killed. But that does NOT explain why, theocentrically, He HAD to die. He could have called upon Legions of Angels to rescue Him or simply ascended at any moment. But He did not. If this is a throwback to the allegation that Jesus did NOT die as a vicarious punishment for our sins because “God would not kill God” to appease His own wrath it is thinly veiled at best.

On the other hand if this look at Jesus is NOT about the propitiation for sins but simply an anthropocentric look at the series of human events that led Him to be presented before the people to let them decide: Jesus Bar-Joseph or Jesus Bar-Abbas, then indeed His strict obedience to His Father and His loving disdain for the rule and rules of man certainly “got Him killed” in the strictest sense of earthly unjust “justice.”

It really ain’t hard to become a martyr. As you suggest simply mimicking Jesus and emulating His behavior can get you killed. And while I do NOT believe that Jesus suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome I do love about Jesus His uncanny commitment to speaking the Truth, in love, that often garnered a reaction from the “normal” people similar to that of “normal” people to Asperger’s sufferers. They ostracize, ridicule, and in some cases, kill the Truth-tellers.

Asperger’s sufferers insist they can not help themselves — they have to say what they think and do what they think is right in the moment. Jesus, too. And us?

http://www.facebook.com/brett.davis.32 Brett Davis

Nothing got Jesus killed. He have up his life willingly. I do see your point however.